FACTORS AFFECTING BUSINESS DECISION-MAKING

What factors affect business decision-making and what do marketers need to consider when reaching out to their audience? Excerpt from “The @Work State of Mind Project” – a joint effort of gyro, award-winning global b2b agency, and Forbes Insights. To download the complete report go to www.gyro.com/atwork.

Since decision makers often involve their personal values in their business decision-making, a marketing message has to reverberate with or inform the value system. “Effective leaders have a strong set of values, and as the @Work State of Mind evolves to more decisions being taken from home or holiday, then personal values will become more important factors in making decisions,” says Chris Combemale, executive director of the Direct Marketing Association, a U.K.-based trade group. “Sales and marketing messages need to move beyond transactional, rational decision making and focus more on brand values, tone of voice and subjective benefits.” Combemale adds: “In the technology space, brands that are sexy or cool will win out versus brands that are purely functional, and psychographic factors will become more important.”

While reaching out to their audience, marketers need to take into consideration all the layers of the @Work State of Mind, starting with the setting where this message is received. “The majority of marketers might think, ‘We’re going to talk to someone in an office setting, they’ll be at work and they’ll be in their office,’” says gyro’s Swann. “We’ll send them something, and it’s all pretty traditional.”

But that can be a mistake. The executive that you may be trying to reach could be in a taxi on his way to the airport, he could be at home, or on vacation.

The reception of the marketing message will vary depending on the place and time, so “you’re going to get a little bit of tension,” says Swann, “and whatever you do with that tension, you have to make an impact.”

Every day in America, 3.5 billion brand-related conversations take place, according to a report by Keller Fay Group. Getting a message noticed and having it reverberate in that environment is a sophisticated process, requiring understanding of the @Work State of Mind.

“The perception for marketers is that brands aren’t being spoken about,” says Swann, “so what we have to do is shout our message at this audience. The reality is that people are speaking about brands over time. They’re talking about them particularly in the course of work but also in the course of their private life. Therefore, it’s less about yelling and shouting and it’s much more about offering something new to say about that brand. Give people some clear value, and they will talk about you.”